gatekeeping

Definition of Gatekeeping

(noun) When an individual or group controls access to goods and services but particularly to information and people with power.

Examples of Gatekeeping

• Administrative assistants limiting who speaks with decision-makers.
• Requiring ever-increasing credentials for certain jobs.
• Restricting access to information such as news, by controlling who sees it and what is covered by an editor or government.

Gatekeeping Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: gate keep·ing

Audio Pronunciation

Usage Notes

• Plural: gatekeepings
• Gatekeepers are common in hierarchies such as bureaucracies, and their power is often greater than their formally recognized authority.
• In qualitative research, particularly ethnographic research, a (noun) gatekeeper (also called key informant) helps facilitate access to a group of people or a locale.

Additional Information

• Gibbs, Patty, and Eleanor H. Blakely, eds. 2000. Gatekeeping in BSW Programs. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Shoemaker, Pamela J., and Tim P. Vos. 2009. Gatekeeping Theory. London: Routledge.
• Simon, Rita J., and James J. Fyfe. 1994. Editors as Gatekeepers: Getting Published in the Social Sciences. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Do You Speak American? – Gatekeeping: pbs.org

Related Terms

• authority
• clear division of labor
• explicit rules
• hierarchy of authority
• impersonality
• McDonaldization
• organization
• power
• Weber, Max

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Works Consulted

Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.

Henslin, James M. 2012. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 10th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2011. Sociology: The Core. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Macmillan. (N.d.) Macmillan Dictionary. (https://www.macmillandictionary.com/).

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).

Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. 1997. New York: Random House.

Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Gatekeeping

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “gatekeeping.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 25, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/gatekeeping/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

gatekeeping. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/gatekeeping/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “gatekeeping.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 25, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/gatekeeping/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“gatekeeping.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/gatekeeping/>.